1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to removable pumps and more particularly to fastening systems and devices for attaching a pump to a bottle or container and allowing the pump to be removed from the bottle or container.
2. State of the Art
Pump and container systems are well known. Pumps may be connected to containers in many different ways. For example, pumps may be screwed onto a container, fit to a container with a bayonet-type attachment, or permanently fixed to the container such as by a crimping method.
Fragrance pumps are often crimped to a container to prevent removal of the pump from the container. Other systems, whereby a clip system or pressure fitment system is used to connect a pump to a container, are also used. Examples of various pump and bottle fitment systems are illustrated in the following: U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,530; U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,495; and United States Patent Application Publication 2006/0151541, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Some of the advantages of a crimp system or pressure-type pump fitment system include the speed at which the pumps may be attached to a container on a filling line. This is especially true in the fragrance industry where screw-on pumps have not been used with fragrance containers in part due to the speed at which filling lines typically run. In addition, screw-on type pumps are not typically desired for fragrance pumps and containers due to the breakage of bottles during the process of attaching the pumps to the bottles.
While such systems offer viable methods for securing pumps to containers, none of the existing systems allow a pump to be connected to a container in such a manner that the pump is removeable and is able to be attached to a container with the same speed as current crimp-on systems or pressure-type pump fitment systems. Thus, it would be advantageous for a pump to be connectable to a container with the speed of current filling practices and to be removable when desired such that a container, the pump, or both may be recycled.